Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-08-19
SECRETS OF THE SEX.
why the Girls Wear Their san
Dresses Cut Low I'm the Neck.


Dresses Cut Low I'm the Neck.
I have learnt more girl secrets
since coming here than l could
tell in month. As l be-
long to the fair sex and have
travelled extensively since a child, |
regarded myself as being reasonably
well informed about the peculiarities
of the nineteenth century woman.
But | confess that l knew
very little of her before
landing in this aristocratic
old town. 1t all came out at the last
Casino hop. was counting the plaits
in the skirt of Carrie Astor's dress
when very garralous lady who
spends her summers here asked me II
Iknew why most of the matrons and
Young married ladies wore dresses
with an exaggerated capital V cut at
the back of the neck reaching almost
to the waist line. | admitted my
ignorance and she said: "You don't
tell me, child Why you ought to
know what brought that fashion into
vogue. When a woman begins to
show her age, the first part to lose its
firm, youthful contour is the face ana
chin, then the neck and bust, and no
amount of alum-water washes nor as
tringent pomades" will restore firm
ness to the habby muscles, and it then
becomes necessary to look about Tor
some other beauty that nature spares
a little longer, and the upper part OF
the arms and the back keep their
whiteness and delicacy long al
ter the rest of the woman is pdssee.
For that reason was the V shaped back
invented, and, therefore, were sleeve
less waists made, which leave the arm
exposed up above the shoulder. Long
gloves hide many a wrinkled hand
and withered forearm, and the mod
estly high front of the waist wells the
faded bust, while the black velvet
ribbon, tied tightly around the throat,
retains the loose flesh in its snug EN-
brace, while it whitens the rest OF the
neck by contrast, and it also sustains
the baggy double chin together with
the "wrinkle annihilator," which is
made of alum and parafline and lit
tie sweet almond oil.
Some of the ladies who look SO
young and pretty at these hops, as
well as at the balls in the city in the
winter, NAV not like to have 1t said
that they look like their grandmothers
in the morning, but it is true never
theless. and it is a queer study to
watch the way they make themselves
up for the occasion. In the first place
the loose flesh and fabby cheeks and
chins are their bitterest trials, and
toitet vinegar is sometimes used as an
ablution, as it is very astringent, but
the worst cases require strong solu-
ton of alum water around the eyes,
and rubbing with the astringent po-
made which, in the course OF hall an
hour, makes the skin hard and
smooth. Then over this is laid a
"cream," or "balm," or adhesive
powder" A new style OF rou. e is now
used which reproduces nature = color
oring so well as not to be detected on
first sight. The eyebrows and lashes
now can be dyed the exact shade de-
sired, and this will stay on from ten
to fifteen days. Where the form is
deteriorated by age, or undeveloped,
baths of cod liver oil are taken, or the
oil is applied to the thin arms or
chest and left to absorb. This doesn't
smell pleasant, in spite of all the
most powerful perfumery, and you
often hear a society lady remark that
she is undergoing a course OF external
cod liver oil treatment for weak
chest"
Few people who have not, so to speak,
"been there" can imagine the amount
Il hxT
ladies for different articles preserva-
tive-or supposed to be-of their
beauty, or the amount of thought and
study they give to adapting their man.
ner of dressing to enhance their per-
sonal charms. In Newport they sur
pass themselves. and yet they now 60
into the surf in spite of revealing OF
themselves as they really are. They
tabooed surf-bathing for several sea-
sons ON that very account, it is whls-
pered, but now, what with their indel-
iible rouge and eyelashes, they have
it, though they nearly all wear sly cor
sets. If they didn't some of
them would look rather queer. One
thin, tall and otherwise perfectly
formed young lady, who has relatives
living here and who has made her
home in their magnificent cottage
every summer for years, and who is
fine amateur actress and great favor
ite in society, found that she would
not look well in the water without a
pair of tim "symmetries' and with
them on, her bathing dress fell in
classic folds across the chest, and the
dress was very much admired until
Friday the fastening gave way and
they slipped down to her belt, and
she slipped out of the water and made
for her bath house and she didn't
need rouge. There has been a good
deal of quiet laughing about it since.
kansas City Star.